Archbishop Bernard Hebda said that it is “with great joy and gratitude to Pope Francis” that he congratulates Father Michel Mulloy, whose appointment as bishop of Duluth was announced June 19.
“I very much look forward to collaborating with him as he joins the bishops of our state,” Archbishop Hebda said in a June 19 statement.
Bishop-elect Mulloy, 67, a priest of the Diocese of Rapid City, South Dakota, served as his diocese’s vicar general 2017-2019, until he was elected to serve as the diocesan administrator after Bishop Dwayne Gruss was transferred to the Diocese of Saginaw, Michigan. Prior to those roles, Bishop-elect Mulloy spent most of his priestly ministry in parishes.
Born in 1953 in Mobridge, South Dakota, Bishop-elect Mulloy was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Sioux Falls. He served in parishes in both the Sioux Falls and Rapid City dioceses before bring formally incardinated in the Rapid City diocese in 1986. He has served as the Rapid City diocese’s vocations director and director of its Office of Worship. He has also sat on its presbyteral council, College of Consultors, diocesan finance and pastoral councils, and the Sioux Spiritual Center Board of Directors.
His episcopal ordination and installation have been scheduled for Oct. 1.
As the 10th bishop of Duluth, Bishop-elect Mulloy succeeds Bishop Paul Sirba, who died suddenly of heart failure Dec. 1, 2019. Bishop Sirba had been a priest of the St. Paul and Minneapolis before his appointment to Duluth in 2009.
“I have come to know him in his great work as Diocesan Administrator of the Diocese of Rapid City and am confident that he will be a faithful servant and shepherd to the people of northeastern Minnesota, building on the ministry of Bishop Paul Sirba,” Archbishop Hebda said of Bishop-elect Mulloy.
I rejoice with the Church of Duluth on the appointment of their new Shepherd: Bishop-elect Michel Mulloy of the Diocese of Rapid City. Arranging so quickly for such a capable successor might have been Bishop Sirba’s first miracle! https://t.co/jWMUtDaxkA
— Bernard Hebda (@ArchbishopHebda) June 19, 2020
He added that the archdiocese is “proud to count Bishop-elect Mulloy as an alumnus of The Saint Paul Seminary,” the archdiocese’s graduate-level seminary in St. Paul. He attended the seminary from 1975-1979, after completing undergraduate studies and seminary formation at St. Mary’s College (now St. Mary’s University of Minnesota) and Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona. The St. Paul Seminary has graduated 33 other priests later ordained bishops, among them Venerable Fulton Sheen.
The dioceses of Duluth, Rapid City and Sioux Falls are suffragan dioceses of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Prior to Bishop Gruss, the Diocese of Rapid City was led by Archbishop Charles Chaput, later appointed to Denver and then Philadelphia; and then Cardinal Blase Cupich, now archbishop of Chicago. On May 12, the Holy See announced that a priest of the Diocese of Duluth, Father Peter Muhich, was named bishop of Rapid City.
“Please join me in praying in this time of transition for Bishop-elect Mulloy as well as for the faithful of the Dioceses of Duluth and Rapid City,” Archbishop Hebda said.
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